Challies' Hypocrisy:
"The Christian’s attitude
toward others, especially in difficult times, is to be one of optimism rather
than pessimism, hope rather than doubt. We, of all people, should be slow to
put aside hope and belief. This means that I owe it to C.J.Mahaney, to SGM and
to those who have levelled allegations to believe the best about them, to hope all
things for them."
~Challies on the sexual abuse
charges against Sovereign Grace Ministries/church headed by CJ Mahaney (the case is going to court; go here for more info)
Yet the standard is different
for discernment bloggers who take his public opinions, actions, etc. and test
them against Scripture:
"The second lesson is
one I am surprised I did not see before: Discernment
bloggers often operate by fear...The discernment
blogs are too often marked by neither truth nor love. " ~Challies
Indeed, Challies plays the
victim when he's at fault for his own actions and double standards. He has repeatedly given credence to enemies of the Cross (Rick Warren, Mark Driscoll Ann Voskamp, Donald Witney), shows little anger toward the nastiness going
on at SGM, and then complains when his error is revealed by the light of truth.
The hypocrisy of Challies is
that while he continues to slam discernment bloggers by slander (he claims they operate on
fear and lies--accusations he doesn't back up in any specific way--just accusations of nameless people), he himself wrote a book on discernment. He allows himself to be the discernment
blogger of discernment bloggers. He is unwilling to assign motives and indeed
gives wide grace to the SGM sexual abuse charges ( or false teacher Rick Warren for example), but is generous with his
assigning motives and allegations against discernment bloggers that he doesn't
like. He is unwilling to give the same grace and thus withhold his opinion and
slander that he demands of everyone re: himself. That's the epitome of
hypocrisy.
If Challies is upset with bloggers exposing his error, then he should either stop his error or stop reading about himself. Perhaps he's in the wrong field of choice. Liberals want to consort with the enemy of Christ and then complain with those in Christ expose their disloyalty toward HIM and His flock. You can't play with fire and then complain when the fire department shows up with hoses turned on and dowsing the entire house. Its your fault for playing with the matches and starting a fire.
If Challies is upset with bloggers exposing his error, then he should either stop his error or stop reading about himself. Perhaps he's in the wrong field of choice. Liberals want to consort with the enemy of Christ and then complain with those in Christ expose their disloyalty toward HIM and His flock. You can't play with fire and then complain when the fire department shows up with hoses turned on and dowsing the entire house. Its your fault for playing with the matches and starting a fire.
Challies' standard for everyone
else but himself is hypocritical. Did he personally try to approach those he
claims have slandered him? Does he see into their hearts to see if they have love or not? He knows their motives? Did he verify the facts? Oh, he had them from their
website? Cannot the same be said for those bloggers he's railing against? So
how is his violation of his own standrd ok? If a person consorts with false
teachers, they have invited rightful criticism. 2John 9-11 makes this very
clear.
By trying to denigrate a much
needed spiritual gift like discernment, into something so nasty he uses it like a cuss word (perhaps now he and others like him will just use the phrase "the D word"), labeling it as gossip, intimidation, lies,
slander, bullying, merely shows that he can't stand under the weight of
discernment. Are there people who really do say nasty things? Sure. But so what?
Challies yet again makes sweeping generalizations and lumps all discernment bloggers into
his trash can as worthless and gossiping bullies. A true mature believer won't
keep reading about himself and then write a whole article about how he's a
"victim" of his own public words. One thing I've learned is that when
"famous online Christian experts" get publicly exposed for their
error, their pride comes out in major ways. The non-committed, take-no-sides
men suddenly take a side vehemently and come out slandering others themselves.
1 comment:
He's just like the rest of the silent "let's see which way the wind is gonna blow before we say anything" Christian 'leaders' who won't say anything about SGM/Mahaney. Same old same old. I don't get why these guys are so revered. They don't sound anything like a Martin Luther or John Calvin, standing against the evil of the day.
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